Letter From Paris: On Location--Galerie Vero-Dodat 2

Yes, I had to return to the scene of the aesthetic at the Galerie Vero-Dodat (pictured on right) in Paris's 1st Arrondissement.  The images were too good--too luscious in art and style to keep from you.  (If you happened to miss the previous Vero-Dodat blog, click here.)

These are the windows of an art gallery on the left side of the passage, if one has entered from the rue Croix des Petits Champs.  It was showing decorative arts--as in these chairs--and sexy sophisticated images, one of which you'll find below.

Art & Chairs (with reflection of floor) in the Galerie Vero-Dodat  (Above)

Matador Chair

This dashing matador costume is fabulous as a chic chair.  But on a macho man strutting around a bullring, publicly torturing and then killing powerful and beautiful bulls?  Have you ever been to a bullfight?  These magnificent beasts are not even given a sporting chance.  They're maimed before entering the bullring, so the Pussy Boy matadors can have the upper hand.  So P.B. matadors and their violent retinues can systematically torment and abuse the bulls before finally executing them. 

And the matador is supposed to be a hero in killing the big bad mutilated bull? 

Of course, I realize this is a part of Spanish culture.  But many Spanish also abhor this cruel game and protest it, as the Lone Wolf and I saw in Ceret and Collioure when we lived in the south of France.  These two charming villages, where Matisse, Picasso, and other artists once made their homes, still hold bullfights in the summer.  L.W., Bret, and I attended one in Collioure and were horrified by the spectacle.

Societies don't have to continue cruel public rituals to amuse crowds who want to see animals or people die.  Christians have long since stopped being used as bait in Coliseum games.  We no longer produce public hangings or be-headings.  Most religions have long passed the practice of sacrificing animals to the gods on temple altars.  Cock-fighting and dog fighting are illegal in the U.S.  And around the world?

Do people need more catharsis?  Is that what this performance ultimately satisfies in us? 

There are definitely better ways to get it.  Read a good book.  Watch an emotional drama, a thriller, or a movie where the bad guys get mowed down.  Tune in to Dexter.  Play a shoot-em-up video game.  (Or does this create more brutal behavior in some who are on the verge?)  In the end, they're make-believe.  Go to a football or hockey game, which seem plenty violent and competitive enough to relieve aggression.

Stiletto as Art

Of course, there's always sex.  How about a sharp stiletto?

Check out the Galerie Vero-Dodat at:

19 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1er

Metro: Line 1, Louvre-Rivoli or Palais Royal-Louvre

How do you feel about bullfights?  Yea or nay?  Should we accept them as part of a cultural heritage--or is the torture and killing of bulls as public ritual unacceptable?  Let me know what you think.

Unless otherwise indicated, photos by Beth Arnold using her iPhone and Canon PowerShot SD750.

                                                                    ---Beth Arnold in Paris